I Corinthians eleven verse one be followers of me even as I also am of Christ now I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I deliver them to you apparently the Apostle is taking up ordinances here and It would do us well to find out what an ordinance is. What is an ordinance? The word occurs only a few times in the Scriptures. It's translated sometimes traditions. For instance, when the Lord said you to make void the word of God by your traditions, he was using this same word. ordinances and he uses it that way several times but then you have the apostle using it in its good use and we see it here in first Corinthians eleven verse two that we just read and then he gives it in a good sense in second Thessalonians two fifteen where he says stand fast and hold the traditions and then gives us encouragement to go on in the things of God. So he's encouraging us to hold fast the traditions. It's the same word as ordinances. So to understand it we have to look up the word itself in the Greek and it simply indicates something handed over, something given over. So it's these teachings that the Apostle has given over to the saints to keep, especially these things that are visible. Now he mentions here that they keep the ordinances, and then he says, verse three, but I would have you to know. So he's going to give another ordinance. He says, I praise you that you keep the ordinances that I've given you, but I want to give you another one. And so he introduces the principle of order in the church as far as men and women are concerned, saying that the man represents Christ in the church. and the woman represents the church in our gatherings. And therefore, the man is head, and the woman is in submission. The man is the teacher, the preacher, the leader. And the woman very sweetly submits to the leadership of the man in the things of God. that's the order and then he gives us a sign of it which is that a man should never come into a meeting into the things of the Lord with his head covered and on the other hand the woman should never come to the meeting without having her head covered the man is setting forth Christ as head the woman is setting forth the church and therefore she's covered. It gives us different viewpoints of this. One is that the woman is the glory of the man and man is the glory of God. And so God's glory should be unveiled when we participate in the things of God and man's glory should be covered. and the woman being the man's glory is covered. So he gives us more than one reason for this ordinance. Now some might want to debate with me my calling this an ordinance. This wouldn't change anything whether we call it an ordinance or not. Let's put it this way. In Christianity... we have only three symbols. Now that's undebatable. We have the symbol of water baptism. We have the symbol of the Lord's Supper. And we have the symbol of the covering. The man uncovered, the woman covered. So if I put it that way, surely no one would debate this, that we are given three visible symbols in Christianity. You know, I never did appreciate all these new symbols they keep throwing at us. To me, it's more commercialism. It's just they want to sell more stuff. And so they put out all this stuff. It's not scriptural at all. For instance, the fish. Why do we need to go back to something like that? You know, it's funny how strange people are People don't want us to read out of the King James Version these days because they say the language is so strange and it has thou and thee and thine and lettest and audits and they say that stumbles them. And so, you know, we try to water it down and make it simple. That doesn't bother us too much. They turn right around the same crowd and they start throwing these symbols at us, the fish and And these signs written in Greek, you know, on the bumper stickers and all that. And this is supposed to be representing Christianity. To go right back into the very thing, they protest when we read from the King James Version. Some of them call, they use the word koinonia. And, you know, they talk about that koinonia. And all they're doing is using a Greek word for fellowship. They go back all the way back to the Greek. They go way past the King James Version to the Greek Version. And it's really funny, you know. It just shows you can't make people happy. You might as well just stick with your guns and be done with it and not try to please the world. It's impossible to do that. But we do have definite symbols, just three. And you know, this made a terrific impression on me. If God and His wisdom has given us only three symbols, then they must be of terrific importance. You know, I've been brought up in the denomination. The first thing I was told about the woman's head covering was that, oh, that was the custom of the days. And that's the way people dress then. Well, as I read the Scripture, I noticed that wasn't what Paul was talking about at all. He doesn't start off even with the covering. He starts off with this principle. But, verse three, I would have you know the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. He's teaching us order, God's order. God, Christ, man, woman. And that's God's, that's his divine order. And that's what he's setting forth. And he brings in the covering as a symbol of this. He is not talking about customs. In fact, if Paul went by custom, do you know what he would have taught? He would have taught that a man should wear a covering whenever he enters the house of God. because Paul was a Jew and a Jew to this day wouldn't enter into a synagogue without a covering on his head. The priest in the Old Testament had to have their head covered and if a priest didn't cover his head he died. As he ministered in the temple he had his head covered. So Paul was not following tradition or custom. Paul was giving us a new symbol in Christianity. And it testifies the thing that America hates today. The thing that America is protesting with all its breath today. And that is God's order. That God has made man the head. And the woman is to be in subjection to the man. You know what? I find out that many of us in assemblies give this lip service, and that's all. We say, oh yes, that's what the Bible teaches. And yet I dare say they're brethren here tonight that wouldn't dare go home and say, sweetheart, I've made up my mind that we've got to do this, this way to please the Lord. There's many a man of God that knows the book, but he just seems hit a wasp nest as to say something like that to his wife because they're just giving lip service to these principles. Oh, saints of God, this is God's order. This is the only way to have a Christian home is to do it God's way. And I'll never forget the day that my precious wife came to the place she accepted this truth. When we were engaged, I thought we had this understood. You know, we talked over these things. And my wife had had a good Baptist preacher as a pastor. And he'd taught her this truth. And his wife always wore head covering in church. In a Baptist church, mind you. And... He taught my wife the same thing, for she was saved under their ministry. And she knew these things, and I thought I had it made, you know, when I got married. Already broken in, you know. Well, after we were married, my wife soon saw that she wasn't married to quite the angel she thought she'd married, to put it very mildly. And she wasn't about to be in subjection to him. Go aside, immediately took to the Bible. And I said, you know what the scripture says? And I just made it worse. And finally I gave up on that. And I just started thinking and praying. One day out of a clear blue sky, my wife came to me and she said, sweetheart, from now on I'm going to obey you. And she nearly scared me to death. you know I felt like she was a piece of China and if I touched her she might break it gave me a new appreciation of my wife and it helped me to get before God I fairly ran to the Lord and I said Lord I've been asking for this all the time and now I don't know how to handle it it's too big for me and I was plain scared to demand anything of my wife. I was afraid, for I realized she had put me before God. I was responsible now, and I better live up to the responsibility I had asked for. Do you know God has given Christian husbands, Christian men an impossible job? It is humanly impossible. to do what God expects of a Christian man. To be a Christian husband and a Christian father is beyond human ability. And that's why when he takes up the Christian home in Ephesians chapter five, he starts with be filled with the Spirit. For he knows we can't do it. without the help of the Holy Spirit of God. You know, do you know who's responsible for bringing up children? We're not given but two places in the whole New Testament as to how to bring up children, only two. And they're both addressed to the Father. Ephesians chapter five says, you fathers bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord he didn't say you parents he didn't say you mothers he said you fathers and we can't relegate it to the wife and say that's your job I'm busy out here the husband is responsible for his wife and he is responsible for his children for the bringing up of those children. Certainly he should have the oneness of his wife with him. And certainly she being with the child most of the time, especially in its early years, she has most of the work to do. But they are one in their discipline, one in their purposes. And the wife is carrying out the discipline of the husband as the head of that house. Don't you realize that God tells us that if you fail in your home, that disqualifies you to be a leader in the church. This is telling me that if I can't win the battle in my own home, I can't win it anywhere else. Home is the test of what I am as a Christian man. And likewise for a Christian woman, what your home is tells what you can be for God in the church and elsewhere. The acid test is what are we in the home. That's why he says an elder and a deacon must be one that rules well his own house. That takes in the wife, the children, all. and we must win the battle at home before we're going to win it anywhere else dear christian god's order we must learn to practice it and you know when a man sees his wife say i'm going to obey god by obeying you if he's any kind of a man he'll never use that authority to get his own selfish ends it will put him so on his face before God that he'll always be considering what God would have done what is God's will in fact what it makes you do if you're really a husband that's seeking to do God's will in this matter and your wife has taken her place in obedience to the word it makes you instead of trying to get your own way you change and you want to make your wife happy you want to see what you can do to make her happy and it's not what do I want but it's what does my wife want the scripture says he that is married cares for the things of the world how he may please his wife he doesn't say that's wrong That's right. But he's saying, Paul in that context is talking about something else. But he's stating a principle is right. A man that's married ought to care for the things of this world, how he may please his wife. If his wife would like a window over the sink so she can look out when she does the dishes, then he ought to put that on his list and say, by the grace of God, I'm going to throw a window. over the sink. He ought to be seeking her happiness. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. What a love. And my friends, this isn't poetry. This is plain old good religion. I mean religion in its good sense. This is practical Christianity. This isn't poetic. This isn't some preacher talking. This is God's word to Christians. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. Oh, what love. And gave himself for it. Gave himself for it. My, we can make home a heaven on this earth, Christians. If we'll just go at it God's way. and a wife submitting to her husband. You know, I'm just sure when my wife said that she was going to obey me, I'm sure what she was thinking was, well, I'm committing suicide, but I've got to do it. But she didn't commit suicide. She helped make our home a heaven on earth. And God is my witness. That's what it made it. Only God could have done it. This is God's order. In the home and in the church, the man is the head, the leader, and the woman is the submissive follower. And he gives scriptural reasons for this, wherever he brings his subject up, and you'll notice he doesn't say, as they used to tell me where I was brought up, used to tell me the women weren't educated then and the men were and that's why he said the women shouldn't teach my friend the Word of God when it tells us these things immediately gives us the reason and it goes back to the beginning it jumps over all education back to the beginning and gives us the reason For Adam was first formed, then he, by the creation, God set this order, the man first, and then the woman, is what God says, not what I think. And he says also, the woman was deceived. He's going back to the Garden of Eden, isn't he? And not the man. You see, he leaps over education and custom, and he goes right back to the beginning as the reason for these things. You say, well, I think the man's sin was the greater if he wasn't deceived by the serpent. The woman was deceived, but the man wasn't deceived. So the woman went into it blindly, but the man went into it with his eyes open. Yes, I agree with you. The man was committed the worst sin. But this isn't a matter of punishment. This is showing that our natures are different. That a woman leads with a heart, and she is more inclined to be deceived. Whereas a man is more inclined to use his head, and therefore less inclined to be deceived. If you look at most of the cults today, you'll find that a woman is the originator of that cult. When in the garden, when Satan tempted the man and the woman, you remember Eve who should have led with a heart and not a head. That is, she should have said, I'm just going with my husband. I'm going to stick with him. Whatever he says, that's what I'll do. Instead, she reasoned with the devil and she listened to him. And it says, when she saw that this fruit was beautiful to the eyes and to be desired and to make one wise, just what he had told her, she took it and ate. She led with a head. She reasoned and listened to the devil, and she fell. Then man, when Eve offered it to him, he should have used his head, and he should have said, God said, not to take of that fruit, and I'm not taking it. He should have used his head. But instead, he reversed his role, and he led with his heart, and he followed Eve. He did what she suggested he do, and he ate of the fruit. But now you see, in the head covering, we have the reverse given us. The man is uncovered to say that he is the head. He is the leader, and the woman is saying she is the follower, submitting to his authority. My wife says she likes to wear head covering. She said, I'd just like to tell the devil, you've got me out of my place in the garden, but I'm wearing this to tell you I'm in my place now. You know it is a wonderful testimony. That covering is a beautiful thing. Heaven must smile upon the dear sisters as they wear this covering today, especially in this day when it's such a reproach. The scripture says that this head covering he says in first corinthians eleven in verse ten for this cause ought the woman to have authority on her head which shows he's talking about the symbol of authority the covering ought to have authority on her head because of the angels the angels are surveying us It now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenlies might be made known through the church. The manifold wisdom of God. Oh, saints of God, we're on display before the angelic hosts as we gather. And they are seeing God's order as they see us sitting here this very night. They see the man uncovered representing Christ, the head. And they see the women's heads covered representing the church in submission to the head Christ. Don't you see we have church truth displayed in this ordinance. It's the very truth of the church. Christ the head and the church in loving submission to him. No wonder wherever I go, when I don't see those head coverings, I get a little cold feeling in my heart. And I say to myself, big boy, you'll lick before you start. Because I say to myself, they're not going to take the whole counsel of God here. They've made up their minds to throw some of it out the window. But oh, when I see that head covering, I say, my, you better get busy because these folks want something. They'll take the whole word of God. It's just an indication today of the obedience of the saints. That's one ordinance. Then he takes up another one in this same chapter, First Corinthians eleven and verse twenty-three. for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you now use this as a verb this word delivered is the verb for the noun ordinance see where he had ordinances in verse two you keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you and the word delivered there by the way in verse two is simply the verb of the noun ordinance so that's it again in verse twenty three I delivered unto you I handed over to you to keep so here's another ordinance of the church and that is the Lord's Supper my the wonder of this ordinance we've spoken of the church as being a building now why is why does he call it a building Because this building is a temple. Ephesians two. Look at Ephesians two, verse twenty-two. Ephesians two and verse twenty-two. I start with verse twenty-one. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In whom he also are built together for inhabitation of God. by the Spirit. Oh, Christians, I wonder if we believe what we read. I mean, I'm talking to my own heart. I wonder if I really believe this, that this assembly is the dwelling place of Almighty God. When He put up the tabernacle, you remember the glory of God came into that building so strong as he entered that holy of holies that the priests had to get outside they couldn't even come near it the glory was so great and when they put up the permanent temple which was on the same pattern as the tabernacle but on a much more lavish and larger scale you remember again the glory of God filled the temple for he came and dwelt in that temple. And my friend, this hasn't changed one iota. First Corinthians chapter three, verse sixteen. First Corinthians chapter three, verse sixteen. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy for the temple of God is holy which temple ye are now he is not speaking about your body here that's in first Corinthians six he's talking about us collectively he's talking about the local church that's why he says ye are that's plural you together are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells among us as a church in a unique way, just as he dwells in each of us, personally in a unique way. A habitation of God. That means a dwelling place of God by the Spirit. We're on holy ground, God Almighty. is in our midst. Well, the temple was his dwelling place, and it was therefore, quite logically, the place to worship God. He was there, and they worshipped him there. They had to bring all the sacrifices to the temple. They couldn't offer them out on any hillside. They desired it would be an abomination to God. They had to come to the temple with their sacrifices. and that was their worship the priests were in the temple and they handled the sacrifices and offered them up to God and you have this same situation now in the church in its fullness in its reality first Peter two five he says you as living stones are built up a spiritual house unholy priesthood that you should offer up spiritual sacrifices well pleasing to God through Jesus Christ we are the priesthood we are the temple and we offer up our worship to God and it is tremendous what is worship some people listen to a preacher preacher half-hour sermon and they sing some hymns and this special music and they say they've been to worship but my friend you might worship some during that time but that's not worship if you want to see what worship is see an example of worship like Genesis twenty two when Abraham said I am the lad will go yonder and worship well what did he do there he took a sacrifice and he offered it to God that's all he did that was his worship the sacrifices in Leviticus all those wonderful sacrifices dear saints of God if you're not really acquainted with the sacrifices in Leviticus chapter one through chapter seven. I beg you to go and study them. And I'm sure you'll be like me. You have to have some help to really understand it. I couldn't. But oh how I thank God for men like C.H.M., C.H. McIntosh, who has written on the Pentateuch and gives us in the book on Leviticus such wonderful help. Oh dear Christian, if you really want to know how to worship God, get acquainted with those offerings. Some people read those sacrifices and they think that God's telling Israel how to get saved. My friend, that's not the purpose of those sacrifices in Leviticus. That's their worship. When God gives commands as to those sacrifices, Notice where he is. He's not on Sinai saying you've got to find a way that I can meet these people in peace. That's not where he gives those commands. He gave that awful law from up there. But now he gives the sacrificial system from the tabernacle where he was dwelling peaceably in the midst of his people in covenant relationships with them they were a redeemed people they were his people and he speaks out of the tent of meeting the place where he meets with his people and he says Moses I want you to tell them how to come and worship me the first three of the great sacrifices you didn't even have to offer them they were free will offerings if you just wanted to you offer them so obviously the point there isn't how to use that is not to teach you how to be saved the point is worship and all we need to go back and read those things and learn how to appreciate our great sacrifice you see God had so much to tell us about the Lord Jesus as our great sacrifice that he couldn't picture him in one sacrifice. So he had five major offerings which the Israelites would have bring to God. Each one of them gives us a different view of Christ. Oh my, what depths are in those sacrifices. For example, the first one is the burnt offering. It's often called the whole burnt offering. because the whole offering went up to God. In the others, only parts of it went up to God. Like in the peace offering, God just got the fat of it, whereas all the other parts were shared by the priest that offered it, by the offerer himself, by his family, and so on. But in the burnt offering, the whole offering went up to God. And it's simply giving us another view of chalvory that we might enter into when we remember the Lord Jesus. And that is, when he went to the cross, he didn't go there for you and me, first of all. That wasn't his first object in going to the cross. His first object was to go there for his father. He went there to please the Father. And he pled, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And oh, what God must have seen at Calvary. Oh, as he looked down upon that cross, and saw his perfect, spotless, Holy Son, looking up toward heaven to do the will of His Father, though it caused Him to sweat great drops of blood, even when He anticipated it, and to make Him plead that He might not have to go through it. And yet the Father sees Him obediently, going all the way to Calvary. That's the burnt offering. It all went up to God. For it's what God alone could really see at Calvary. Who among us can appreciate such devotion? Oh, we've gotten a little glimpse of it here and there in our own children. How we delight when a child of ours just says, I love you. When a child of ours goes out of his or her way to do something special just to help us, just to make it lighter for us. Like that CB radio on my car, which I didn't think I needed at all, but my son thought I did, so he bought it and he installed it for me. Oh, how a heart's thrilled. When we see that in our own children, But, oh, when God saw it in all its perfection and all the fullness of the Lord Jesus going to Calvary. Now, I'm just mentioning one of those offerings, but don't you get it? Don't you see that each offering is going to make you view Calvary from a different viewpoint, like you took a camera and snapped a picture here and around this side and snapped another, and you've got different viewpoints of some object. It's God giving us rich appreciation of Christ at Calvary. And this is what worship is. It's coming to God with our appreciation of our great sacrifice, His beloved Son. Just as Abraham said, we'll go yonder and worship, and all he did was offer a burnt offering to God. that's worship not when we say oh father we thank you for the pretty weather we're having today we thank you for the beautiful flowers that grow my friend that's not worship that's pitiful worship is coming to God and speaking to him about his son in whatever way you appreciate Christ to tell the Father what He is to your heart and tell the Lord Jesus what He is to your heart. That's worship. So the only pure worship we have in the church is this ordinance, the Lord's Supper. For all we do at that supper is to call Him to mind. Actually, the Greek, as Darby points out, and... W. Vine does likewise. The Greek doesn't say this do in remembrance of me, but it's a much stronger expression. And it means, as I'll read from Vine, he says, it does not mean in memory of. We're not having the Lord's Supper in memory of Christ, like you would put a bouquet here in memory of a loved one. But he says it is we keep the ordinance in an affectionate calling of the person himself to mind. What a difference. In an affectionate calling of the person himself to mind. That's what the Greek is saying there. This do in remembrance of me. The Lord is saying, when you do it, do it, calling me to mind. Like I look at that photograph of my wife that I carry around. And Ma, I look at it and I just enjoy it, you know. I look at those eyes and they're so pretty. And I look at that face and she's not half as old. She's sixty this month, but she looks like she's about ten years younger than I am. And you know, she's got her hair all dolled up and she looks so pretty. And I just remember her. It calls her to mind. And I remember all those precious, happy things about my dear wife. So this is what the Lord's Supper does for us. We call Him.